'It's a change in mentality'

摘要

Few developers have been as busy as St Modwen in the industrial & logistics sector in the past couple of years. The company, which used to be known primarily as a regeneration specialist, delivered 1m sq ft of industrial space in 2018 and circa 950,000 sq ft in 2019. Under the auspices of its new specialist arm St Modwen Industrial & Logistics, which was launched almost a year ago, it had been on track to deliver 1.5m to 1.7m sq ft this year and 1.8m to 2m sq ft a year going forward, much of it speculatively. Then the coronavirus pandemic struck. Property Week caught up with Rupert Joseland, managing director of St Modwen Industrial & Logistics, to find out why the company is focusing so much effort on the sector, what its long-term gameplan is and how disruptive the lockdown is likely to be to its immediate delivery programme, Joseland joined St Modwen's Birmingham regional office back in 2001. Prior to that, he had enjoyed stints at Chestertons; Boots, in its property division; and Miller Developments. After Birmingham, he moved to Bristol to set up St Modwen's regional office, and from there he worked on a wide range of development projects across the South West and Wales. Then, last year, the developer decided to split the development team into two distinct segments - strategic land and regeneration and industrial and logistics.